About half of the students who fail to graduate college in six years never  even make it to their second year, according to Department of Education data.  Now, a new app is aiming to help make that college transition more successful  for students — by involving their parents.

Launched this fall by a team based in Washington,  csMentor– the “cs” stands for “college survival and success” – is a web-based program  that combines video mentoring with regular check-ins to promote better  communication between students and parents.

When families sign up for the program and pay the monthly $29.95 subscription  fee, the student gets access to a series of Mentoring Interactive Programs, or  MIPs, which can be accessed online or from a mobile phone. Each MIP consists of  a short video on a topic such as “Coping With Homesickness” or “How to Ask for  Help in College.” At the end of each MIP, students are asked a series of  multiple-choice questions about their health, social adjustment, academic  behavior and academic goals.

After the student completes the week’s 10 multiple-choice questions, the data  are analyzed by the csMentor technology and a report is generated for the  student and the parents. The report doesn’t list the students’ answers, but  instead provides a summary of how the student is doing in the four key areas,  each of which is coded green, yellow or red.

I don’t mean to knock the app, but doesn’t this require that the student answer the questions honestly?